This invention relates to access to public records over a computer network.
In recent years there has been an increase in the amount of information stored by federal and state governments which must be made available to the public pursuant to open records statutes. There has also been an increase in the amount of information that businesses and individuals are required by law to provide to the government.
Because of funding deficiencies, government agencies have not kept pace with the constantly improving technologies for distributing and accessing electronically stored information. Most existing computer systems employed by governments are outdated and incompatible with the newer systems purchased by businesses and other members of the general public. Thus, direct public access to government repositories by electronic means is impracticable, and the exchange of information between government and citizens is greatly impeded.
Further, government repository databases are organized according to the needs of government but are not organized according to the needs of various industries. Therefore, the highly specialized needs of each of a plurality of different industries can not be met by existing government systems. Nor do governments have the resources necessary to adapt their systems to meet these specialized needs. Moreover, many believe that governments should not expend limited resources to provide application specific services to particular industries.
Finally, even if problems of compatibility and accessibility were overcome by adapting the systems used by government to enable direct electronic access by the public to government repositories, the security of information in those repositories would be significantly threatened by enabling direct public access. That is, enabling direct access by the public would increase the probability of contamination of information in the repository and would increase the probability of unauthorized access to sensitive non-public information.
A need exits for systems and methods that overcome these and other obstacles to the electronic exchange of information between governments and its citizens.
The present invention provides systems and methods that overcome existing obstacles to the electronic exchange of information between government and its citizens.
The present invention provides controllable access, by way of a distributed computer network, to information contained in government records stored in a repository database. Information in the repository is copied into a replica database that is remote from the repository. The replica database may be continually updated with new information added to the government repository. Also, individuals and entities may post information to the replica database that is required by law to be made public or required by law to be provided to government. Further, the present invention provides for the archival and preservation of historical records in a repository that the government may dispose of after a certain length of time.
According to the methods of the present invention, public records are managed in a digital environment and original documents and signatures are stored in digital format. Fees imposed in conjunction with providing and accessing information may be transferred electronically as part of a transaction.
Access to information in the replica database is controlled to exclude access to sensitive information by individuals who have no legal right to the sensitive information. The invention provides for the posting of conditions imposed by law for obtaining access to information in the replica database and conditions imposed by law for the use of the information obtained. To the extent that written permission is required to access information, the invention may provide electronic means to apply for such permission. Thus, a person desiring access to information may ascertain what criteria must be satisfied to obtain such access. Application for permission to access information may be submitted electronically, and notice of the grant or denial of permission may be provided electronically. Where permission is granted, the applicant may be assigned a password to enable access to the information for which access permission was granted. In addition, other access control technologies, such as biometrics identification, may be employed to control access to information in the replica database.
Thus, the present invention provides an independent data system that can securely enable access to information in a government repository by numerous third parties without providing direct access to the government repository. In effect, the independent data system acts as an elaborate firewall to shield the government database from potentially harmful third party connections.
The present invention provides for the creation of a plurality of secondary databases, each containing an application-specific subset of information in the replica database. These secondary databases may comprise data tables organized to facilitate the efficient search and retrieval of information most pertinent to a specific application. The provision of data tables optimizes performance and reduces memory storage requirements. Further, irrelevant information or information the disclosure of which would violate a person""s privacy rights can be excluded from the secondary database. Thus, the provision of application-specific secondary databases improves system performance while providing an additional layer of security.
The invention further provides for the implementation of application-specific interface processes for accessing information from, as well as providing information to, the replica database. Thus, for each application-specific secondary database, a customized interface may be provided to facilitate the search and retrieval of information in the secondary database. For example, a display of data entry fields, point-and-click icons, and navigational controls tailored to accessing the specific informational content of one or more secondary databases may be provided. The present invention also provides for the implementation of additional application-specific functionality such as specialized accounting and report-generating modules. Thus, different application-specific interface may be provided those are custom designed to meet the specific needs of each of a plurality of different entities.
The invention also provides for the coherent unification of information in the repositories of different government entities. The present invention provides for a central database comprising information from the repositories of multiple different governmental entities, federal, state and local. Thus, the records of many government entities may be accessed from a single location. Moreover, the invention overcomes the problem of accessing records that are stored by different governments in different organizational formats. The present invention provides a unified organizational structure of information from records stored by different governments to enable access to the information by way of a single coherent methodology.
The invention also provides for the tracking of each and every instance that a user of the invention attempts to access personal or otherwise sensitive information. An audit report can then be created that identifies the user attempting such access and the information attempted to be accessed. These audit reports may be stored for subsequent production as may be required by law.
The independent data system of the present invention further enables the redundant and robust connectivity that can be provided by a distributed computer network such as the Internet. Thus, access to the replica database may be provided at a web site accessible by numerous Internet connections to computers at remote locations. Moreover, by providing an independent replica database, access to data contained in a government repository database is provided even when the government database is off-line. Additionally, the independent database of the present invention effectively transfers the cost of providing efficient access to government records from the government to the private sector. Through this methodology commercial interests acquire the ability to exchange information with the government without any imposition on government resources.
These and other features and aspects of the present invention are better understood with reference to the attached drawings and following description of various embodiments of the invention.